Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
This is what the world needs now: two free-thinking “seasoned” Black women speaking their truth and inspiring others to do the same. Shaped by 45 years of friendship that began at the prestigious Brooklyn Technical High School through the Ivy League, medical school, marriages, divorces, triumphs, parenting queer children, life-threatening illness and many many amazing adventures. Each week, besties Leslie Osei-Tutu and Angella Fraser will push against boundaries in love, culture, careers, faith, politics and out-dated assumptions about women of a certain age. Remember, you’re never too old to change your mind…or your hair! (but more on that later :-)All views are our own and do not reflect the views of our institution/company. Information provided is not intended to serve as medical advice.
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
The Full Body Impact of Menopause (and why you should care at any age)
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This episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn features two guests who offer insights into the often-misunderstood topic of menopause. Besties Angella and Leslie introduce Dr. Toni Otway and Dr. Damali Campbell, two physicians who recognized the need to dispel myths and challenge societal misperceptions around menopause.
They conceived The Year of the Menopause- a series of lectures and webinars designed to provide education, awareness and a safe space for discussion of this often misunderstood life cycle. The Year of The Menopause will address the influences of patriarchal societies and historical neglect of the topic in medical education with an emphasis on community support and self-advocacy in healthcare.
New Jersey Black Women Physicians Association: https://www.njbwpa.com/
New Jersey Medical Association: https://njnma.org/
Visit Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn website for behind-the-scenes extras.
Year of Menopause Collaboration Announcement
Speaker 1Hey folks , it's Angela and Leslie here . We have been talking about a collaboration that we were kind of keeping under wraps until it fully solidified and we're ready . It's here . What is it , Les ? What is it ?
Speaker 3So the Besties have collaborated with the New Jersey Medical Association and the New Jersey Black Women Physicians Association , of which I'm a member of both groups , to talk to you about a project called the Year of the Menopause . Why is that important to you and why should you care ? You will be really surprised to know that menopause affects everyone , not just people who have or have had ovaries . So during this year-long project , we're going to have the team members on talking about maybe once a month or so , about different topics of menopause what it is , what it isn't , dispelling some myths , answering your questions .
Speaker 1Discussing why , how the patriarchy shows up in menopause , not only how it's understood , but how it's treated and how it's minimized , and how it really leads to some major health risks for women because of that . So we're going to get into all of it . It's going to be this highly instructional . You're going to leave knowing things that you've never , ever , considered before . Whether you are , whether menopause is in your radar or whether it's , you know you're in the Perry stage or in the post wherever you are , or if it's in your know you're in the Perry stage or in the post , wherever you are exactly , or if you love someone who will or have experienced menopause .
Speaker 1We think that you will really be edified by this , and we feel like we're filling the gap with this type of information , because so many people don't have it , including doctors , and so we're collaborating with them to help to spread the word , and it's going to be probably once a month that we're going to discuss a different topic and get really into the nitty gritty of menopause throughout this year . We hope that you enjoy this first episode .
Speaker 3And stay tuned .
Speaker 1Okay bye . Hey .
Speaker 3Anne .
Speaker 1Hey , Les how you doing .
Speaker 3I'm doing well , good Doing well . I'm excited today , but I'm always excited . You're always excited . You're the excited one , all right , but let me just say this I'm extra excited because I put on mascara . But let me just say this I'm extra excited because I put on mascara .
Speaker 2When Leslie puts on mascara , it's about to go down .
Speaker 3Because that's a commitment . That means tonight the face washing is going to be extra , but it's a special occasion , so it's well worth it .
Speaker 1It is a mascara occasion . Okay , what can I say ? And I curled my hair that you just cut , so I'm ready . I'm ready to go . Hey folks , welcome to Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn . I'm Angela and that is Leslie , my best friend of almost 50 years , if you can believe that it is true . We are two intellectually curious older Black women . We like to explore ideas , we like to explore assumptions , we like to push against the status quo and we like to , as often as we can do it with other amazing Black women . So today we have a couple of those , and Leslie's going to introduce them .
Speaker 3I'm excited , I'm a little giddy , but it's really serious . I brought on two very special people . I want to talk about a collaboration that Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn is establishing something . That's valuable information and it will actually change the way you think about people human beings . So let me just start introducing a couple of folks . I have two physicians here . I have Dr Toni Otway .
Speaker 3Dr Otway is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist . She currently resides and practices in New Jersey . She got her training in Florida and in New York and she's worked closely with organizations that provide medical care for the underserved . She is currently a Senior Medical Director for Horizon , blue Cross , blue Shield of New Jersey and throughout her career she has been collaborating with several organizations to help promote education and wellness for women , especially in communities of color . So the other dynamic lady here has been a friend of mine for quite a number of years . She is a friend , she is a colleague , she's a confidant and she gives really good advice , and there are times when we're on call together and we're just sitting up dealing with stuff , so , stuff . So Dr Dominique Campbell is a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist for over two decades in various northern urban communities in New Jersey . Her work specifically focuses on improving health literacy and outcomes for patients , particularly in under-resourced communities . She believes in order to improve health outcomes , we must understand the needs of the community we serve , give health information in a way that community members can understand and use that information and listen again to make sure we got it right . Who wouldn't want a physician that does all that ? So I give to you Dr Tony Otley and Dr Domily Campbell .
Speaker 3I want to tell you all about this exciting collaboration . It's called the Year of Menopause and you're like menopause . Why is that something that I might want to hear about ? Well , whether or not you have ovaries , you may love someone that has ovaries . You may love someone who used to have active ovaries but they are no longer active . You might be someone who is in love or partnered with someone who is in menopause and you're just tired of the room being at 40 degrees every night because they're always burning up next to you . So we think that the idea of menopause there are so many mysteries about it , there are questions about it , it's a big deal , it affects all of us and we want to introduce to you the year of menopause . So why did this come about and why now ? Who wants to start ?
Speaker 2I think it has started to come about because it is now being discussed a little bit more and I'm hoping that it's not just going to be a year . I'm hoping that this is the start of beginning of women really understanding what's going on in their life . You've got to understand menopause is basically almost like 40% of your life , that you're actually in this situation . I call it the situation . You're actually in this situation and I think over the past few months , couple of years , it's being investigated more and people are realizing that it's more than just what's going on in the ovaries and the hot flashes . It's a lot more it's been found that we have because , really , menopause is a loss of estrogen and we are finding that there are over 400 receptors in our body that have estrogen . All the way from the top of your head to your toes , all the way through your body , you have estrogen receptors . So every single part of your body , every function , everything is affected by this loss of estrogen and I think it's just coming on to the forefront and I think more and more women are just demanding to have help Because , like I said , it's like 40% of your life you are in this phase of menopause . I think that , for me , is one of the reasons why I think it's becoming more and more to the forefront .
Speaker 2They asked me to do a talk . At my job . We do these lunchtime discussions and they say can we just do menopause ? There was over 200 people on that call . I was shocked and I kept getting questions , emails for days , for days , yeah , yeah , and I thought I mean , mean I haven't practiced . For about eight years now I've been working with the insurance companies but I haven't really been practicing and I thought it started to get better , but it didn't seem like it has gone anywhere and when you say it gets better , what ?
Speaker 3what are you referring to ? What might ?
Speaker 2have gotten better , that I thought the information was getting better , that I thought that the information was getting out there . I thought that people were um , because there's a there's a huge , uh , there's a huge problem in the medical schools , because I wasn't really taught it . You know , it's not really something that's taught as a separate subject , it's just kind of by the by , and I did medical school 20 something years ago , whatever it was , and I thought it had gotten better when I was looking into it . It hasn't gotten better at all . So that's my reason for getting into it at this point in my life .
Speaker 4So and I would just add to what Tony is saying that you know , I think primarily that women are living longer , um , and you know they are . As we are living longer , we are living life fully longer . Um , you know what that life looks like in 60 , 70 , 80 , in 2020 , in the 2020s is different than what it looked like , maybe , in the 60s and 70s . But what we need to understand about medical training is that , unfortunately , our medical training is primarily hospital-based , and so , because medical training is primarily hospital-based , you know , dealing with the symptoms of menopause are something that people don't really deal with too much in the hospital . It's something that is really people will present with as an outpatient setting , and so I think that is what leads to this paucity in our training regarding how to deal with menopause .
Speaker 4Now , you know , for those of us that are entrenched in , you know , scientific research , you know there's , you know there are studies , and you know all these things that have been done , and you know , as medical studies go , you know there were times when estrogen was recommended and then some of the studies , you know , talked about the risk of taking estrogen , so for some time , people backed off of making those recommendations . We then looked at , you know , and reanalyzed a lot of this medical research and realized that some of those studies that looked at the risk of hormones , we were really looking at hormones that were given to women who had been in menopause for quite a long time , which is typically not how we treat menopause , so maybe those risks were over-exaggerated to some degree . And so , you know , there's been a shift back and forth in the knowledge , but there really has not been as much training and research that I would say that we would have liked to have seen in , you know , the last two or three decades .
Speaker 1So I have to jump in because I'm the , I'm the , you know , listen , I'm the only non-doctor in the building , right ? And so I got questions . I got questions . Do you think that it's because we have a patriarchal system ? Oh yeah , that um menopause is not studied and not um not seen as something other than an annoyance to men , right , talk amongst yourselves .
Speaker 2Talk about something I mean , when I was going through school and training , all they wanted to do was the surgery . They wanted to do the cutting , they wanted to do the deliveries , but the you know , the bread and butter of seeing a patient and treating a patient in a clinic was not their interest , so it was never a big priority to put that kind of training on . I think over the years it's starting to get a little better , but nowhere near where it should be . So yeah , it's absolutely because it's a patriarchal system .
Speaker 3But that's also what I was saying . I mean , whether or not you have ovaries , I'll put it that way , or identify as female , or have a uterus , or in menopause , we all interact with all types of people . So there has to be some interaction with people who are experiencing perimenopause and menopause . But what I was going to ask you , domily , is that if , as you said , that there is has been um quite a bit of scientific research done about estrogen replacements and things like that , and I'm hoping that extrapolates to menopause in general , so why then do you , does your organization and I didn't mention the organizations and I will why then do you all feel that it's necessary to put together or establish this year of menopause proposal and plan ?
Speaker 4Yeah , I mean , I think , as Tony mentioned , I think just because more women are living longer and menopause is something that is affects every aspect of one's life , and so it's , you know , it's not just about hot flashes and difficulty sleeping , I mean it is affecting , it affects memory and cognition , and so women are experiencing , you know , difficulty in the workplace .
Understanding Menopause and Women's Health
Speaker 4It affects their mood , and so they're experiencing , you know , difficulties with relationships . You know difficulties with relationships . You know not only . You know , like partner relationships , children relationships , you know all types of relationships .
Speaker 4You know we , and you know it take , it could take at least a year . We probably could go on longer than a year because you know , as Tony mentioned , you know , menopause affects every aspect of our health , how menopause affects our bones , how menopause affects our sexual desire and our sexual health . So there isn't any part of our body really that is left not affected by menopause or whatever you choose to call it . The change , the big M , you know . So there's so many . You know different names the change of life , and I think you know we've come out of this place . You know , when I talk to some patients , we don't have really good predictors of when women will go through menopause . The best predictor that we have is when your own mother went through menopause . And as I talked to many patients and I asked them you know , do you know when your mother went through menopause ?
Speaker 4They're like no they didn't talk about stuff like that .
Speaker 3Exactly so . We don't have the stories , or we don't know the histories of when our mothers went through menopause or friends or this , because these are kind of things similar to when people are menstruating . It's almost like you don't talk about it , you keep it closeted . Know , you keep it closeted and I'm looking forward to just um , experiencing this and learning more about it , because I , as even as a physician , I have so many questions about it . You know , I hear about hormones and I had no idea that it affects so many things . Maybe that's why people call me the B word sometimes Bossy , bossy .
Speaker 4Name in total control of yourself . Name in total control Exactly .
Speaker 3So , as you're putting this year together , who's your audience ? Who are you talking to and why ?
Speaker 4Yeah , I mean , in addition to the fact that I think women are looking to have this conversation more , one of the things that you know , we know in general , that I know in general , is that that I know in general is that this is not . You know , we talk about the patriarchal society and so you know we have a lot of talk about Viagra and how we're going to . You know we want to increase , you know , men's ability to have sex , but I have a lot of the women who come in and they're like well , how do I increase my sexual libido ? How do I , you know , deal with the vaginal dryness that I'm experiencing as I become older ? And so there's this way where medicine , you know , does the research on the issues that affect men but not on the issues that affect women .
Speaker 4And then you know there are disparities not only in treatment availability for women of color , but even involvement in clinical trials . So how do we know that some of these treatments work as well in women of color and different populations ? How do we know when they are not necessarily represented in the clinical trials ? And I realize that not everybody feels that representation is important , but you know we're actually . You know , if you believe in science . What's happening with science , where we are with science , is precision medicine , and so we know that some medicines do work better in some people , in different people , and that's where medicine is headed .
Speaker 2Yeah , I think that for me I'm talking to any and everybody , because we're all lacking in our understanding of what's going on with this . So anybody that wants to listen I'm talking to . I mean , this is a subject that's very rarely talked about , discussed and , just like any other issue in medicine , when it comes to black women , it hits us the worst and we are treated the worst . We're educated the least . So for me it's talking to any and anybody who wants to listen .
Speaker 2Because I found over the years that everybody is an audience , every single person my family , everybody , friends , work good sure workers , everyone . So this is a conversation for every single woman that's out there , because this situation is not just when you stop your periods . I mean menopause . This characterizes when you've got a whole year without your period , but it can start years before that , years that find that your ovaries are starting to , uh , lose the estrogen and things are starting to be affected . Your bones are going to start to be affected , um , your brain is going to start , your heart , everything is going to start to be affected before that actual cutoff time of the year without the period .
Speaker 2So this is something you shouldn't you know , it's not something you need . You should be waiting to talk to someone , um , that have actually got menopause . It's a discussion that needs to be done way ahead of time . It's this weight control , it's this discussion of , for your bone , supplements with calcium and vitamin D and exercising , decreasing your alcohol , putting smoking . These are all things you need to discuss to get your body prepared for that time when you go through changes to lessen the effects and to lessen the chronic conditions that will come out from losing that estrogen . So for me it's to talk to everybody and anybody who wants to listen .
Speaker 3What I love , what you said , tony , just now , is that I want younger people , who might be even decades away from being perimenopausal or menopausal , to start listening to this One , just to get good , sound information about what is going to happen years later . But not just that to start preparing yourself now . If you were planning to run a marathon in six months from now , when do you start training for that marathon ? Well , me , I would start in month five , but most people should start right away . You know , you start now and you gradually start building up for that . So if people know that the loss of estrogen affects all these parts of your body , well then I can start . There are things that I can start doing a decade before , or two decades before , or if I start experiencing memory loss , or if I start experiencing memory loss , or if I start , you know , feeling weird in some other way or whatever , you don't start wondering like what the heck is wrong with me . You know you get some answers . I mean , that's what it would do it for me .
Speaker 4I think that's a great point . I mean , I have experienced so many women coming to the office after their Google search of various symptoms , you know , like really worried and really concerned , like not knowing , thinking they might be dying , they might have some chronic medical illness , they might be depressed , they might have chronic fatigue syndrome , and you know they're not getting answers , maybe from their primary care doctor , you know , and but nobody has connected the dots . Because they are experiencing fatigue , they're experiencing difficulty sleeping , they are experiencing mood swings , but then nobody's really asking them about what's happening with their menstrual period , and so then it's like , oh yeah , that's like coming and going , and sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not , and so you know , I'm like aha a clue .
Speaker 4Clue that's when you have a good doctor , you know , happy to tell you that stories of this of other people , just happy to tell you , yeah , that you're , you're not dying yeah , yeah yeah , you know , and it's so interesting that the relief that can be brought to people to know that they're not dying , they don't have some major medical illness , that this is just another stage of their life and that there is , there are things that can be done to help them to manage .
Speaker 1They've probably spoken to several doctors before they got to you right . Spoken to several doctors before they got to you right . And so it's like how do you think that the your profession as a whole , that they are um rising to the need of being educated in this way so that , because patients won't know , we've you know , we've been socialized too to think that menopause is this . It's not that it's only hot flashes , it's not a hot flash .
Speaker 3it's not menopause , they're not getting hot flashes , but dryness yeah .
Speaker 4We definitely need better education on a professional and provider level as well . But then I also want to go back to what Ange said .
Speaker 3But then I also want to go back to what Ann said . In a patriarchal society you kind of have to care also , you kind of have to take ownership and say you know , I care about what happens to these people in my world or in my home , in my , you know people that I care about .
Speaker 2Or my patients , right . But I also think in this day and age , with the way healthcare is because it's literally a business , it's not really healthcare anymore , it's really a business that it takes a long time to sit down with a patient and go over these symptoms , because it's never just one symptom , it's never just one symptom , it's a multitude of things . And then and then to have to educate patients on you know , what's going on with them and the treatment they could do and what they need to do . It takes a long time . So it's not easy just to go into your regular OBGm these days and and and get this kind of um discussion with your provider because they've got to see so many patients to you know , sometimes these days some providers are having , you know , months before you get to see them on a regular , just for a regular team pap smear , um and the way the insurance company I mean , I work for an insurance company but the way it's reimbursed I'm sorry , true , yeah , I , it is what it is .
Speaker 2I have no , I have no , no qualms about telling how it is the way that people , the way the providers have to see patients these days is , uh , it's not conducive to actually sitting down with someone and really being compassionate and listening to them and trying to figure it out . Um , and because it's it's not a one-time thing , it's something that's always ongoing . It's if you start someone on medication and you have to bring them back to see how it's affecting them . So it's , it's , it's it's it's not just that we're not just being educated , but the the system doesn't allow . It doesn't allow the time that's needed to actually discuss this routine on a routine exam .
Speaker 4And I think you know , let's face it , we we have to just fess up that we have a health care system that is for sick care . It is a reactionary health care system that deals with people who are sick and doesn't really look at prevention . Ok , and so you know , we talked about how menopause can affect cardiovascular health and so . But when I'm faced with someone who shows up in my office with a blood pressure of 170 , over 90 , and I have 15 minutes , I'm really scrambling to deal with the issue of their blood pressure and any , as any physician would and trying to , you know , keep them out of stroke range blood pressure , hypertensive , emergency , so it's triage and you know , then we're not really having that conversation about . You know how , you know , and they could be having these menopausal issues as well , but we don't even get to that conversation because I get locked in and trying to keep them from having a stroke .
Speaker 1Yeah , and guess what ? That is why the year of the menopause is so important . Right , this is obviously they're not treating an individual in what is being discussed in this campaign , but it is a source of information that you can have , because your doctor only could spend 15 minutes with you . You getting information . How about this amazing conversation and this podcast helping you to be informed about menopause ? You know the effects of it , how to not think you're crazy , as Damali said , how to take action , individual action , have agency self-agency to learn about these things because you know they're
Menopause Awareness and Health Implications
Speaker 1really important .
Speaker 1I personally did not have kind of the quote unquote difficult or I don't even remember the height of my menopausal years . Neither did my mother . I just remember her talking about you know , feeling hot or whatever , but whenever we talked about it the few times it wasn't a big deal . I didn't experience it as a big deal . However , however , the fact that it has so many implications for the rest of my health and I didn't know that makes me angry . Yeah , that makes me angry because I might have been thinking something else . I didn't link it to menopause , but I still experienced it . But I would never have connected because that's not really the thinking . Menopause is hot flashes , crankiness , a dry vagina and that's it the rest of it . Heart disease . What I mean heart health . What I mean heart health ? What Osteoporosis ? What 46 receptors in the body ? What ?
Speaker 4Yeah , 400 .
Speaker 2400, . How many ?
Speaker 4400 receptors .
Speaker 1Even worse , 400 receptors in the body for this hormone . That is severely reduced during that's .
Speaker 2That makes me pay attention as a physician say , same situation . Mine basically just stopped and that that was it . And then I , I literally got one more a whole year later , um , just one day of bleeding , and that was it . So and that was it for me . I never really experienced anything and even I , as a physician , never really thought about the rest of the stuff . I never really thought about it . I never thought about bone health and even though I do exercise and I do weights and stuff , I mean I could still be doing more and I could still be doing more with my heart health , with my brain fog , and the simplest of things that we should be pushing is things you know . There was a study that said you know , a Centrum 50 , one a day . I mean , how is that that I was not taking that from years ago ?
Speaker 3alright , I'm going tomorrow to get my Centrum 50 . I hope it's not too late .
Speaker 4We don't have any stock in Centrum . I hope it's not too late . We don't have any stock in Centrum , though .
Speaker 2I hope it's not too late for me . We don't have any stock in Centrum , I know . But a Centrum it's Silver Centrum , one a day . You know covers , you know some things , and so how did I not know that ? I never knew that you were in , yeah .
Speaker 3Which is very scary , yeah , which is very scary . So I think this is going to be an exciting time for us to continue to meet with you all and members of the team and I didn't even talk about really who the team was because and I'll just say just so that I don't forget so the Year of Menopause is a project that was conceived by two organizations that I'm a part of . Dr Campbell is the president of the New Jersey Medical Association , which is the state association of NMA , the National Medical Association . It's the largest and oldest organization representing African-American physicians in the United States . The goal of the NMA is to address health disparities and that disproportionately affect Black Americans . So how timely is this collaboration to foster the goal of NJMA and hence , nma ?
Speaker 3I also need to mention the New Jersey Black Women Physicians Association , for which I'm also involved with a member of as we all are , and that was conceived in 2019 , a network of Black female physicians dedicated to improving health outcomes in communities of color and in underserved populations .
Speaker 3So we have a lot of smart minds and people thinking about this .
Menopause and Women's Health Discussion
Speaker 3We understood the need for it and we're going to bring to you regularly perhaps monthly or even more than that what the year of menopause is coming up with , addressing different topics and accepting questions and I think that if you continue to tune in , you'll learn something . I know I'm going to learn something . I'm already learning something , and I think not only will it change your life , but it will change the lives of people that you love who are going through this . So that's my spiel about it and that's why I'm so excited to bring these to you . So not only are you going to see Dr Campbell and Dr Otway again , but you're going to meet other members of the team and we're going to continue talking about it and hold on to your hats and bring a pen and take notes . And bring a pen and take notes . Did I miss anything else ? So what might we look forward to coming up in the next or in future conversations ?
Speaker 2Well , I think we should , you , you know , because there's so much information , I think we should take different parts of the body and , uh , focus on , you know , the next times we focus on different areas and , you know , we just gave a pretty much general overview of the problems that we're having or the problems that people are having getting information .
Speaker 4But I think we need to we'll be targeted be more targeted into the different areas uh , the brain , the heart , the vagina , skin , air , you know , yeah , um , so we're more focused okay , okay , and and certainly we want to answer questions that folks out there have , and I think it was mentioned about how menopause might affect our weight gain and what we call urogyne health , like if we have problems holding our urine or , you know , maybe we got to know where all the bathrooms are in the mall .
Speaker 3And Damali , it's so funny that you bring that up specifically . How many of us think that incontinence , or what I'll say is like not holding the urine or leaking , is just a normal part of aging , especially for females ? You know , we see the commercials and things like that . We don't realize that it's related to , perhaps , estrogen or that there are things that can be done for that . We think that this is just normal and we all have to live with this . So I can't wait to get some really good information and not that anecdotal stuff that you hear about and it's like oh , you know , it's like yeah , yeah , I'm looking forward to it .
Speaker 4And I guess , lastly , I would say , as it is , you know , as we are on the month of February , which is oftentimes , you know , not only the month of love but , you know , the heart health month , you know we want to offer a little bit of focus , you know , about cardiovascular effects of menopause , and so you know , when we think about as we , as women , transition some people like to call it the transition into that time period where we no longer have a period those actual , those hormones , that estrogen hormone that we produce , affects our , what we call lipid profiles , it affects our weight , cholesterol and our cholesterol .
Speaker 4Yeah , it affects , you know , that body mass index that we don't like to talk about and it affects our bone density , all of which influence our health status . And women's risk for heart disease increases at the time of menopause . And so you know the timing and the onset of menopause . Transition can predict , can be a risk factor for later life problems such as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's . And it's really interesting to note that when you think about women who may have had a hysterectomy and there's many reasons why women have had a hysterectomy may have had a hysterectomy , fibroids , ovarian cysts but Black women actually are more likely to have the removal of ovaries at the time of hysterectomy , which means that they are being put into what we call surgical menopause at an earlier age .
Speaker 3So they are increasing their risk , their cardiovascular risk For all of those diseases that would have come had they had natural menopause later on .
Speaker 4Okay , and so they would have public disease earlier , right . So there comes the disparity , there comes the inequity , right . And why are they having their ovaries removed ? Are we having this conversation ? Are they really understanding the fact that , even when you're not having your period , your ovaries still are producing some very low levels of hormones that are protective ? And so you know , if it's don't , if it's not broke , maybe don't try to fix it .
Speaker 3I see , so that is a conversation that should be had when it's time for a surgical removal of someone's uterus . Do we keep the ovaries or do we take them out as well ?
Speaker 4Ah , okay , and because blood break is a benign disease , right , there's no indication if the ovaries are normal to really remove the ovaries , but it's . You know , in our literature it's documented that Black women are more likely to have their ovaries removed at the time of hysterectomy , even when there's benign disease present . So that increases , that further increases their risk of cardiovascular disease . And so again , you know , there's the inequity and the disparity , yeah .
Speaker 3It's a setup . It's a setup , it's a setup . Wow , okay , wow . It's a lot to digest . All right , we're going to see you guys again , we're going to meet other members of the team and at the end of a year or more , we're all going to be experts . We're going to say I get it All right . Are you taking your vitamin D ? Are you doing your calcium ? How's your lipid panel ? You go girl , okay , okay , not the lipid panel , the lipid panel , all right . Well , thank you to our guests . You guys have been wonderful . We will see you again soon . And this has been another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn .
Speaker 2Thank you .